History Main / DarkAgeEurope

** The novella ''Literature/{{Limes}}'' is set two centuries later, when the Longobards held the real power in most of Italy and the Eastern Empire has failed to retake the peninsula. The protagonist is a Roman noble who laments the decay of the city of Rome and its institution under the Lombards, but has managed to survive the troubled times with his properties and lifestyle unchallenged. That ends when a young Lombard warrior (who doesn't speak Latin neither does he understand the Roman concept of private property) settles next door and starts to eat up his lands chunk by chunk, knowing that his neighbour is powerless. [[spoiler: TheReveal is a TakeThat at the classical stereotype of Roman=civilized Barbarian=savage: the so-called Barbarian speaks Latin as a second mother-tongue and understands Roman culture perfectly - he just has a personal grudge against the protagonist. The Roman protagonist doesn't recognize him as a former servant boy he had cruelly kicked out from his household. The servant came back to get even with him when he grew up and made a name for himself. Fortunately for the protagonist, his daughter ''does'' instead recognise the Lombard neighbour as her ChildhoodFriend, and resolves the feud [[ChildhoodFriendRomance far more peacefully - with a marriage]].]]

The term used for the period by current historians is "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_antiquity Late antiquity]]", "Antiquity" being 'Mediterranean-centric Ancient Greek states and the Roman Republic/Empire'.

** The novella ''Literature/Limes'' is set two centuries later, when the Longobards held the real power in most of Italy and the Eastern Empire has failed to retake the peninsula. The protagonist is a Roman noble who laments the decay of the city of Rome and its institution under the Lombards, but has managed to survive the troubled times with his properties and lifestyle unchallenged. That ends when a young Lombard warrior (who doesn't speak Latin neither does he understand the Roman concept of private property) settles next door and starts to eat up his lands chunk by chunk, knowing that his neighbour is powerless. [[spoiler: TheReveal is a TakeThat at the classical stereotype of Roman=civilized Barbarian=savage: the so-called Barbarian speaks Latin as a second mother-tongue and understands Roman culture perfectly - he just has a personal grudge against the protagonist. The Roman protagonist doesn't recognize him as a former servant boy he had cruelly kicked out from his household. The servant came back to get even with him when he grew up and made a name for himself. Fortunately for the protagonist, his daughter ''does'' instead recognise the Lombard neighbour as her ChildhoodFriend, and resolves the feud [[ChildhoodFriendRomance far more peacefully - with a marriage]].]]

** The novella ''Limes'' is set two centuries later, when the Longobards held the real power in most of Italy and the Eastern Empire has failed to retake the peninsula. The protagonist is a Roman noble who laments the decay of the city of Rome and its institution under the Lombards, but has managed to survive the troubled times with his properties and lifestyle unchallenged. That ends when a young Lombard warrior (who doesn't speak Latin neither does he understand the Roman concept of private property) settles next door and starts to eat up his lands chunk by chunk, knowing that his neighbour is powerless. [[spoiler: TheReveal is a Take that at the classical stereotype of Roman=civilized Barbarian=savage: the so-called Barbarian speaks Latin as a second mother-tongue and understands Roman culture perfectly - he just has a personal grudge against the protagonist. The Roman protagonist doesn't recognize him as a former servant boy he had cruelly kicked out from his household. The servant came back to get even with him when he grew up and made a name for himself. Fortunately for the protagonist, his daughter ''does'' instead recognise the Lombard neighbour as her ChildhoodFriend, and resolves the feud [[ChildhoodFriendRomance far more peacefully - with a marriage]].]]

** The novella ''Limes'' is set two centuries later, when the Longobards held the real power in most of Italy and the Eastern Empire has failed to retake the peninsula. The protagonist is a Roman noble who laments the decay of the city of Rome and its institution under the Longobards, but has managed to survive the troubled times with his properties and lifestyle unchallenged. That ends when a young Longobard warrior who doesn't speak Latin nor understand the Western concept of private property settles next door and starts to eat up his lands chunk by chunk, knowing that his neighbour is powerless. [[spoiler: Except that the truth is more complex: the so-called barbarian speaks Latin as a second mother-tongue and understands Roman culture perfectly - he's just trolling him. The Roman protagonist doesn't recognize him as his former servant boy he had cruelly kicked out from his household and has come back to get even with him years after he made a name for himself. Fortunately for the protagonist, his daughter ''does'' instead recognise the Longobard neighbour as her ChildhoodFriend, and resolves the feud [[ChildhoodFriendRomance far more peacefully - with a marriage]].]]

* ''Series/MiracleWorkers'': The season's setting, and it's a very stereotypical example. Even their higher education is comically sparse and ignorant. Most people live in a harsh, filthy environment with constant war and brutal punishment for even trivial offenses.

* ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail''. The Pythons admit that AnachronismStew is at work: It is said to be set in Dark Ages Britain – the early 9th century – but the costumes are based on fashions from the 1300s. Yet it is ''still'' one of the most accurate depictions of the era ever put on film, due largely to the influence of Terry Jones (himself something of a medieval scholar).

** The novella ''Limes'' is set centuries later, when the Longobards held the real power in most of Italy and the Eastern Empire has failed to retake the peninsula. The protagonist is Roman noble who laments the decay of the city of Rome and it's institution under the Longobards, but has managed to survive the troubled times with his properties and lifestyle unchallenged. That ends when a young Longobard who doesn't even speak Latin warrior settles next door and starts to expand into his lands chunk by chunk, knowing that his neighbour is powerless. [[spoiler: Except that the truth is more complex: the so-called barbarian speaks Latin as a second mother tongue and understands Roman culture perfectly. The Roman protagonist fails to recognise him as a servant whom he cruelly sent away in the past and the Longobard wants to humiliate him in return. The protagonist's daughter has instead recognised the neighbour as her ChildhoodFriend, and resolves the feud [[ChildhoodFriendRomance far more peacefully]].]]

** ''Literature/TheLastLegion'':
Being set at the final death of the Roman Empire, the novel does a good job in depicting how culture was steadily shifting towards proto-medieval ways:

* ''Literature/TheWarlordChronicles''
* ''Literature/LestDarknessFall''

* ''Film/TheLastLegion'': this one is set right after the fall of the Western Empire and ties Caesar's lost sword to Excalibur, no less.

* ''Series/{{Kaamelott}}'' is theoretically set in the 5th century, but deliberately and gleefully uses AnachronismStew such as Renaissance-era full plate armor coexisting with Roman iorica segmenta, the Roman Empire is on its last legs but GladiatorGames are still going strong, the Egyptians still have architects capable of building pyramids while the Pope is sending Inquisitors around to sniff out heresy and witchcraft, etc.

The notion of the "Dark Ages" is thus tied in inexorably with the notion of UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance, since it was Renaissance and later [[UsefulNotes/TheEnlightenment Enlightenment]] and post-Enlightenment European thinkers who argued that the period after the fall of the Roman Empire was an age of backwardness and superstition where The Roman Catholic Church imposed its theological narrative on the world and held back science and progress. In short, it can be argued that it is [[TheWarOnStraw a strawman]] set-up by [[KnowNothingKnowItAll misinformed intellectuals]], often from Protestant countries, and whether Protestant themselves or personally secular, were biased against Catholicism specifically and in some instances religion in general. It also has somewhat [[UnfortunateImplications racist implications]] as the word "Europe" was usually not included at all, meaning that the achievements of Asian and Middle Eastern civilizations during this time were downplayed if not outright ignored as the only civilization that mattered was ''Western'' civilization, and as such the concept of the Dark Ages is often used to justify Western imperialism and white supremacy amongst other unpleasant ideas.

* HeroesPreferSwords: The history behind this is: after the fall of Rome (which had made swords standard for its soldiers), later swords would be expensive, prestigious weapons in many parts of Europe at least and legendary heroes were usually those rich enough to own swords, or alternatively those honored to be given them by their chief or liege.

In Hollywood Land, however, this was a time of muck and more muck. The cleanest—and most well-known—figure of this period generally ends up being [[Myth/KingArthur Arthur]], King (...ish) of the Britons, who had a round table, around which sat his band of noble and chivalrous [[strike:knights]] blokes with big swords (many of whom proved ''not'' so noble and chivalrous once left to their own devices) [[note]] many medieval knights were teenagers that worked for their lord as hired muscle, behaving more like modern gang members than the romances would have you believe [[/note]]. Since most accounts of Arthur were written centuries after he supposedly lived, and featured fashion and architecture from the time they were written, many Hollywood 'historians' lump him in with TheHighMiddleAges (but hey, since when have ''they'' been [[AnachronismStew sticklers for accuracy]]?).

The notion of the "Dark Ages" is thus tied in inexorably with the notion of UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance, since it was Renaissance and later [[UsefulNotes/TheEnlightenment Enlightenment]] and post-Enlightenment European thinkers who argued that the period after the fall of the Roman Empire was an age of backwardness and superstition where The Roman Catholic Church imposed its theological narrative on the world and held back science and progress. In short, it can be argued that it is [[TheWarOnStraw a strawman]] set-up by [[KnowNothingKnowItAll misinformed intellectuals]], often from Protestant countries, and whether Protestant themselves or personally secular, were biased against Catholicism specifically and in some instances religion in general. It also has somewhat [[UnfortunateImplications racist implications]] as the word "Europe" was usually not included at all, meaning that the achievements of Asian and Middle Eastern civilisations during this time were downplayed if not outright ignored as the only civilisation that mattered was ''Western'' civilisation, and as such the concept of the Dark Ages is often used to justify Western imperialism and white supremacy amongst other unpleasant ideas.

** Additionally, the western Roman Empire wasn't quite dead during the dark ages, and the feudal states hadn't actually developed their own war-craft to a competitive degree yet. So swords were a characteristic weapon of the only people who were fully trained in the craft of the professional soldier, with formal training in tactics etc. If a band of mercenaries showed up and they were mostly equipped with swords, chances were that it was a legion remnant and you were about to have your own untrained peasant levies shoved up our arse sideways.

* HeroesPreferSwords: The history behind this is: after the fall of Rome (which had made swords standard for its soldiers), later swords would be expensive, prestigious weapons in many parts of Europe at least and legendary heroes would usually those rich enough to own swords, or alternatively those honored to be given them by their chief or liege.

* AncestralWeapon: Often TruthInTelevision, as the difficulties of making steel and pattern welding made high-quality blades expensive,not to mention the shortage of metals, and they tended to get passed down, some eventually receiving [[ICallItVera a name]] and a legendary BackStory.
* AnachronismStew: It's fairly common to see things that invented in the [[TheHighMiddleAges High]] and [[TheLateMiddleAges Late Middle Ages]] such plate armor to pop up in fiction during this period. Myth/KingArthur is a particularly bad offender in this.

* All movie and literary versions of ''Myth/KingArthur''...although their aesthetic is almost certainly that of UsefulNotes/TheMiddleAges, or even UsefulNotes/TheLateMiddleAges.

* ''Film/TheLastLegion'': this one is set right after the fall of the Western Empire and ties ''UsefulNotes/Caesar'''s lost sword to Excalibur, no less.

* ''Literature/{{CrossoverSeries}}'', the second book takes place in the early phase of the High Middle Age, dealing with the tribes of Ireland.

** Norway at its peak as a regional Power - from 1240 at the end of the civil wars, until it gradually declined in the Century after (usually said to have ended in 1319 at the Death of Hakon V). Thus, the Norwegian "dark ages" coincide with the Italian Renaissance, and the Norwegian "Renaissance" coincides with the age of Industrial revolution.

* AnAxeToGrind: Axes were probably the most frequent non-spear weapon of the era, as an axe is fairly easy for a relatively unskilled smith to make, and peasants tended to have these around anyway for firewood.

This period heralded the [[AfterTheEnd fall]] and [[BalkanizeMe division]] of the Western Roman Empire (the Eastern half was able to survive as the Byzantine Empire), and the rise of monasticism in Europe. Hollywood monks are pious men, clad in long brown robes, with rosaries and tonsure haircuts. They spend their days dipping feathered quills into inkwells and scribbling strange script into large books by candlelight. That is, when they're not out chasing lusty, busty tavern wenches. Hollywood monks don't take that whole “celibacy” thing all that seriously. Neither, in fact, did the regular clergy; celibacy did not become a requirement of the priesthood until ''very'' late in the Middle Ages. It ''was'', however, mandated in nearly every set of monastic rules, including those of Benedict. It was also a time of interesting contrasts: during this period, Christian and Pagan folklore and traditions were syncretized in the minds of the public, which gave rise to some of the most famous mythologies and legends of the Middle Ages, such as Literature/{{Beowulf}}, [[Literature/{{Nibelungenlied}} Siegfried]], and the aforementioned Myth/KingArthur.

* ''Series/{{Kaamelott}}''

The notion of the "Dark Ages" is thus tied in inexorably with the notion of UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance, since it was Renaissance and later [[UsefulNotes/TheEnlightenment Enlightenment]] and post-Enlightenment European thinkers who argued that the period after the fall of the Roman Empire was an age of backwardness and superstition where The Roman Catholic Church imposed it's theological narrative on the world and held back science and progress. In short, it can be argued that it is [[TheWarOnStraw a strawman]] set-up by [[KnowNothingKnowItAll misinformed intellectuals]], often from Protestant countries, and whether Protestant themselves or personally secular, were biased against Catholicism specifically and in some instances religion in general. It also has somewhat [[UnfortunateImplications racist implications]] as the word "Europe" was usually not included at all, meaning that the achievements of Asian and Middle Eastern civilisations during this time were downplayed if not outright ignored as the only civilisation that mattered was ''Western'' civilisation, and as such the concept of the Dark Ages is often used to justify Western imperialism and white supremacy amongst other unpleasant ideas.